LAKE Science Collaborative
TEACHER LESSON PLANS

The Learning Activities through Kelseyville’s Exemplary Science Collaborative (LAKE Science Collaborative) was formed when Kelseyville Unified School District received (in 2007) a California Mathematics and Science Partnership Grant (CaMSP) from the California Department of Education’s Mathematics and Science Leadership Office. Over 30 teachers teaching grades 4-6 in Lake County, California, participated in this project.

The LAKE Science Collaborative’s website features 4th, 5th, and 6th grade Teaching Learning Collaborative (TLC) lessons written by groups of teachers and address various grade-level content standards in science. The lessons were edited by Olga Clymire, Director of this project, with the assistance of Jody Skidmore Sherriff, TLC Facilitator and Regional Director of the WestEd K-12 Alliance. The lessons were formatted by Jo-Anne Rosen of Wordrunner. Matt James, from the Department of Geology at Sonoma State University, provided background Information for teachers on earth science. Ellen Deehan, Botanist, composed background Information for teachers on life science (and several other topics). Cathy Kohler, Co-Manager for the UC Davis McLaughlin Reserve, provided information on heat and air flow. Dean A. Enderlin, PG wrote the “Clear Lake Geology Field Trip Guide for Teachers.” This website is a service provided by the Lake County Office of Education.

Following the Earth Science Institute in summer (2007), Life Science Institute (2008), and Physical Science Institute (2009) participating teachers were involved in Teaching Learning Collaborative (TLC) sessions, where teams of teachers planned and then taught a lesson to a class. The content of the lesson was based on the content the teachers learned at the institute and during other content intensive sessions, usually taught by a science professor from Sonoma State University. After reviewing student data gathered during the lesson, the team revised the lesson and taught it to a different class. Then the team debriefed the lesson. These are the lessons that are on this website. Note that the TLC lessons emphasize the 5E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, Evaluate) learning cycle and lesson design in developing student understanding in science. The process (working collaboratively with teachers teaching the same grade, identifying big ideas for students to learn, as they apply to the content standards, and determining how they will know that students understand what they were taught) is usually more significant than the product (the written lesson as it is taught by a team). However, many of these lessons can be easily duplicated by teachers teaching alone in their classes.